September 26, 2008

7:58: In the comments, we're setting the terms for the drinking game: I said:

Take a sip if McCain says "my friends" or if Obama says "uh."

Palladian said:

Dear God, woman, are you trying to kill people? Alcohol is poisonous in large quantities!

8:03: May the best man win. Jim Lehrer sounds stern! First question: take a position on the finance crisis.

8:04: Obama: "Move swiftly... and wisely... have oversight...." Don't pad the bank accounts of the rich. The whole problem is the fault of the other party. McCain: He begins with "thoughts and prayers" for "the lion of the Senate," Ted Kennedy, who's in the hospital now. He emphasizes that Republicans and Democrats are working together in dealing with the crisis.

8:08: Lehrer pushes them to take a position on the plan. Obama says he hasn't seen it. Ooh, I just saw Jon Stewart savage McCain last night for saying he hadn't read it. Obama's not taking a position. Come on! Take a position! He doesn't. McCain says "sure," he'll vote for it but immediately veers into an anecdote about Eisenhower and railing against greed. "Greed is rewarded." Both candidates look fresh and sharply outlined on the HDTV.

8:13: Lehrer wants them to talk to each other, but they don't much seem to want to. Next question: Are there fundamental differences between what McCain and Obama would do about the economy? McCain says we need to get spending under control... "earmarking as a gateway drug." Obama's a big spender. Obama said earmarks are abused, but earmarks are only $18 billion of the budget and McCain wants $300 billion in tax cuts. So the difference (in what they promise) is clear: McCain would cut spending and Obama would collect more taxes. McCain says those earmarks corrupt people, and Obama is proposing $800 million in new spending. Obama looks annoyed. He doesn't know where that number comes from. McCain looks a little pleased, I think, because he knows he's gotten to Obama.

8:20: McCain says pork-barrel spending is "rife," it's appalling. We see Obama raising a finger. He wants to be called on. Lots of arguing back and forth about who supported what.

8:26: Lehrer asks what sacrifices will be required. Obama mainly talks about things he wants to spend on. McCain says we've let government get out of control. He'd cut ethanol subsidies. (Good!) He'd eliminate cost-plus contracts. He speaks of saving $6 billion on one deal. Lehrer presses them, and Obama starts talking about spending again. (By the way, he is not saying "uh.") Lehrer gets excited about doing something different to deal with the current crises. McCain mentions a spending freeze. Obama objects and mentions another thing he'd like to spend on (early childhood education). Lehrer reasks the question: What difference will the crisis make? Obama talks about values. McCain talks about spending cuts. Obama questions McCain's record. McCain says, for a second time, that he wasn't elected Miss Congeniality in the Senate. (Should have put that in the drinking game.)

8:39: What have they learned from Iraq? McCain says we've learned how to fight the right way and to avoid defeat. Obama thinks we've learned we shouldn't have started the war in the first place.

Whoops. I've been calling Lehrer MacNeil... corrected.

8:44: McCain excoriates Obama for failing to support victory and for not acknowledging victory. Obama says the difference in opinion was only about whether there was a timetable or not. There's a hot dispute here. McCain gesticulates and smiles. Obama looks a little pissed off and interrupts a few times with the muttered phrase "That's not true."

8:51: Obama calls Pakistan "Pah-ki-stahn." Repeatedly.

8:52: McCain is not prepared to threaten Pakistan. You don't aim a gun if you aren't prepared to pull the trigger.

8:54: Obama denies that he talked about attacking Pahkistahn. He's just ready to "take out" al Qaeda if we know they are in there. He teases McCain about singing "bomb bomb Iran."

"I've got a bracelet." "I've got a bracelet too!" Are these serious adults running for president, or is this summer camp?

9:04: McCain gets fired up talking about Obama's willingness to talk without precondition with Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad is talking about exterminating Israel, he exclaims. McCain stumbles over the name Ahmadinejad a bit, and I'm not sure if he's expressing genuine hatred for the man or is just getting fired up about a strong line of attack against Obama. Obama doesn't seem that irritated. He laughs a little. When he gets his turn, Obama needles him about, among other things, Spain. McCain inserts what must be a prepared barb: "I don't even have a seal yet."

9:15: We get a "my friend" out of McCain as he says Obama is "parsing words" about "preconditions, and he emphasizes how long he's been friends with Henry Kissinger. (Obama had cited Kissinger for the proposition that we ought to speak to everyone.)

9:18: The subject is Russia. McCain accuses Obama of naivete. He says: "I looked into Putin's eyes and I saw three letters, a K, a G, and a B." McCain is reeling off names of people and places in Georgia and Ukraine. He's got a strategy of displaying experience and making Obama seem green. Obama's given a chance and he mainly says he agrees.

9:25: Much crossfire over nuclear waste.

9:26: The last question is about terrorism. The main distinction here is that Obama views Iraq as a distraction and McCain thinks it's central.

9:31: Both men have been sharp and clear, and I haven't noticed mistakes. As expected, McCain is more passionate, but he never crossed the line into irascibility. Obama is cooler, but he never fell into that professorial mode that he uses sometimes. He certainly didn't stumble and babble incoherently, which is what his opponents say he does.

9:48: They didn't much go for that idea of talking directly to each other, did they? I mean, other than Obama's frequent assertion that McCain was getting something wrong.

9:54: In the end, I'd say, McCain made more good points and got in more punches, but Obama stood his ground and maintained his stature on stage next to McCain, even as McCain repeatedly tried to portray him as a lightweight. I should add that McCain never seemed too old, short, or lacking in vigor, even on HDTV. Obama looked fine too, and I never saw that upturned face, with the eyes gazing downward, that made him seem supercilious in those old debates with Hillary Clinton.

834 comments:

After days of saying that John McCain would not attend Friday's presidential debate unless an agreement on a bailout package for the markets was "locked-down," the McCain campaign has gone back on its word.

On Friday, it announced that the Senator would head down to Mississippi even though, as they readily admit, much work remained needed on the bailout agreement.

The whole episode left even conservatives admitting that the McCain campaign looked erratic and a bit foolish with no apparent direction or guiding principle.

"It just proves his campaign is governed by tactics and not ideology," said Republican consultant Craig Shirley, who advised McCain earlier in this cycle. "In the end, he blinked and Obama did not. The 'steady hand in a storm' argument looks now to more favor Obama, not McCain."

Shirley added, "My guess is that plasma units are rushing to the McCain campaign as we speak to replace the blood flowing there from the fights among the staff."

Adding to the rocky perception was a McCain campaign web ad released this morning declaring "McCain Wins Debate!" -- put out even before the candidate had announced he was planning to debate.

Michael, while I concede that I construed McCain's remarks as having said that, and although I could be wrong, I don't think he ever actually said that he wouldn't debate until there was a deal. What he said was that he was suspending his campaign, and he called for an agreement to postpone the debate. That's not the same thing as the position you're attributing to him, and I don't think you can criticize him based on our overreading of his comments.

I made the mistake of telling my 13 y.o. daughter that I was hoping to go to a debate party. She thinks that sounds pretty lame. Don't know if I should explain about the drinking games that would take place.

"Andrew Sullivan made the interesting point that if one wants to find a Palin defender these days you have to go to the Althouse blog."

Gee, that is an interesting point! And if one wants to find a barebacking, Obama-fellating, PMSing, waffling British queen with skin-crawling obsession with the issuance of Sarah Palin's womb these days you have to go to the Atlantic online!

Ugh, CNN HD has disgusting graphics all over the screen, lined with a pie chart for each pundit in which they individually rate the performances, and then at the bottom of the screen is a moving line chart for how their focus group responds. Just let me watch the debate and decide for myself. I'm capable of watching it without continuous punditry!

My goodness, McCain is super nervous. His voice is trembling, I think. This is when age and experience are negatives -- he knows that this is it. He has one shot. Obama has 12 years worth or more, of trying.

Obama is like Tiger Woods in his first Masters. If he lets it rip, he'll win by 20.

Hallelujah, someone finally called out Obama on this ridiculous fantasy that he's going to cut taxes just because one side of his face says he will while the other side promises massive spending increases on things that are important. I suppose that in Sen. Obama's world, if it's important enough, the money appears out of thin air. Now if McCain could explicitly point out the flaw in Obama's static revenue assumptions, I'd be even happier.

I feel like they're just having the debate they wanted to have before the financial crisis became what it is now. Neither of them took a strong position on the current situation or did anything to assure us that they had a plan, and they proceeded to recite the same talking points they've had about each other for months.

No, No, NO Not "College affordable for every young person." Not everyone needs college - college is overvalued. And I like hearin Obama talk about the powergrids. Too bad the Dems would not work with Bush on an energy policy.

Paddy O. said... ""We have to fix healthcare" That's a way to save money?"

Yeah, really. Obama still doesn't get - and McCain still doesn't want to say - that entitlement spending is the problem. This whole "let's give everyone federalized healthcare" concept is bad enough as a matter of normative policy, but as fiscal policy it's loony tunes.

Another stupid promise from Obama: In 10 years, we'll be independent from Middle Eastern oil. A pipe dream's pipe dream. He has no "plan" to do this, because nobody could write such a plan without disclosing that it would require massive costs on every American on almost everything, increase unemployment and require not just conservation, but wealth-reducing sacrifice tantamount to putting America on a war footing.

Let's work toward something realistic, getting off all fossil fuels -- in 50 years. Even that would be breakneck pace.

McCain talked about the 'corrupting influence' of earmarks and how some members of Congress are under indictment.

What he forgot to mention is that one of those members under indictment is Rick Renzi (my congressman.) In 2006 as the news broke that Renzi was being investigated by the justice deparment, McCain recorded a robo-call on behalf of Renzi.

This is Senator John McCain. I'm calling to urge you to support my friend, Representative Rick Renzi for Congress. Rick has represented the first district of Arizona with tenacity, honesty and integrity beyond reproach. I work with Rick every day and can report to you his total dedication to the people of Arizona and the United States. Please join me in supporting rural Arizona's workhorse Congressman on November 7. [Paid for and authorized by Rick Renzi for Congress]

So which is it, John? Is Renzi corrupt or does he have honesty and integrity beyond reproach? Obviously the investigation has unfolded to the point that he has been indicted but even as early as 2003, Renzi had made the list of the 13 most corrupt congressmen.

Ugh I was wondering when he was going to get to early childhood education. It's a crock. It doesn't matter if they master kindergarten if they are not graduating highschool. In 30 years of headstart, and 70% of kids going to nursery and kindergartem, students who came through that program did not do better by highschool